The World Canals Conference, which celebrates canals as "agents of transformation," inspired the tour. The tour pays tribute to the legacy of the canals, which celebrate 200 years in 2017, and the legacy of the Northern Forest trees, which built the thousands of wooden boats that plied the waterways.

Visitors can board the schooner free of charge to explore the 88-foot long boat and a special exhibit.

"The Lois McClure has a unique capability to bring 200 years of canal history to life, while engaging people to appreciate and protect our legacy waterways," New York State Canal Corporation Director Brian Stratton said in a news release. "It can also help inform how the canal system can best serve the evolving needs of present and future generations."

During the Legacy Tour the schooner crew will share with community members and students a maritime perspective on the relationship between waterways and trees and canal boats and forests through an initiative called Stem to Stern.

"The forests and the waterways are a key to understanding how America transformed into a powerful and prosperous nation," Erick Tichonuk, Lake Champlain Maritime Museum co-executive director, said in the release. "Using human and animal power, the canal builders cleared a pathway 60 feet wide and more than 400 miles long, much of it through forested lands, to create the water highway that brought an economic boom. Almost overnight, natural resources too bulky to ship overland became valuable commodities."

The canals opened a floodgate of trade between the Champlain Valley, ports along the Hudson River and the Atlantic Seaboard, and through western New York to the Great Lakes.

However, the transformation also brought some unintended consequences. Stem to Stern is designed to spark insight into the impact of deforestation: eroded soil, silted waterways, loss of habitat for fish and wildlife and the arrival of invasive species. Marking the transition to an era of sustainable forestry and environmental stewardship, the schooner will transport a cargo of white oak and white pine seedlings provided by New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s Trees for Tributaries Program, to be planted in communities along the canal.

Further information and the full itinerary of the 2017 Legacy Tour can be found at www.lcmm.org. Travel conditions for this traditional wooden vessel are weather dependent, so the schedule is subject to change.

The Lois McClure was built by Lake Champlain Maritime Museum shipwrights and volunteers on the Burlington waterfront, based on two shipwrecks of 1862-class canal schooners discovered in Lake Champlain. Since 2004, the Lois McClure has cruised Lake Champlain, the Hudson and St. Lawrence rivers and the Erie Canal System, and has visited more than 200 communities and welcomed aboard more than 225,000 visitors. As an authentic replica, the Lois McClure has no means of propulsion other than sail, so the 1964 tugboat C.L. Churchill serves as power.

In addition to the tour stop in Little Falls, the Lois McClure will also port at the Ilion Marina on Sept. 30 and at the St. Johnsville Marina on Oct. 2.